The time is now to act together and make our industry incredible or face a barrage of restrictions and regulations. Timothy O’Neil-Dunne gets into what can be done collectively, to prove travel’s value to governments and to societies.
We are entering the Third Age of Digital Travel – a time of reconstruction and reimagining Travel. This could be the Golden Age after we emerge from the damage the pandemic has done to our businesses, our economies and our culture. We have such a fabulous opportunity to make travel better, kinder, gentler and more sustainable.
Let’s put the spotlight on the elephant in the room. Travel Freedom vs Travel Sustainability? Politicians love to attack fat targets and travel – particularly by air – is a lovely juicy target. Already we are seeing the trend emerging. The Dutch Government will cap flights at Schiphol effectively cutting capacity by 20% next year. Others are sure to follow.
The challenge is to maintain our freedom of movement and cut the environmental impact of travel substantially. Can we do it? Will we do it? Many of the ideas out there, eVTOL, Carbon Capture, SAF etc etc are not going to move the needle of improving travel and reducing our footprint to zero.
This is where we come in. All stakeholders need to partake in the solution. We have to pay the proper economic cost of travel’s use of scarce resources, including environmental. We must also accommodate growth. The old normal did not fully account for the true cost that needed to be paid. Now that failure has been exposed. But individual actions alone cannot work. We need broad scale cooperation and this definitely includes enlightened government participation.
But that’s not all.
In the first two ages of digital travel, we really bootstrapped and did not address some of the glaring challenges that face us. We have an industry dominated by giants, is that wise?
The Third Age has to address these challenges. Some of the work required is frankly boring and definitely not sexy, for example, airline and hotel reservation systems. We have moved on considerably in our digital infrastructure and ability to provide offers served up, as well as our ability to understand the customer and her/his impact.
But the sales process is still – well horrid. It is full of confusion, friction and in too many cases, sleight of hand. The pandemic demonstrated how travel’s creaking basic systems cannot accommodate shocks. The financial fulfilment and settlement systems frankly suck. Resilience was/is lacking. Governments invested well over US$100 billion in Travel. What is there to show for it?
This is where we can all shine. This is where the Third Age of Digital Travel can come to the fore. Data can set us free. Processes can be vastly improved. Resources can be much better utilised. Innovation needs to be real and useful. What I see all too often today is a lack of hard innovation and more tiny increments that have little utility. We are so much better than that.
The risks are not just within. We face the challenge of either making these hard and fundamental changes to our products and business models or we face a barrage of restrictions and regulations, and discontent on a broad scale.
Let’s make this Third Age incredible. Let’s usher in an era of collaboration and care for the customer, the environment, and our resources especially people. Let’s aim to win together and demonstrate to the whole earth community that travel is valuable.
Let’s not waste time. We need to start now. Set targets that are meaningful and achievable. Let’s make our hotels and accommodation carbon neutral. Let’s force the aircraft manufacturers to deliver net zero aircraft. Let’s electrify airport ground service equipment and coordinate their use. Let’s put larger aircraft in constrained airports. Let’s introduce more effective peak pricing at venues and in transportation. And let’s tell our governments that we can do this with minimal intervention. There are no silver bullets but there are so many ways we can improve as an industry.
• Timothy O’Neil-Dunne is managing partner of T2Impact and will be speaking at WiT Singapore 2022, October 3-5.
Featured image: Credit – Getty Images
